A lawsuit aimed at preventing redevelopment of the Bay Meadows race track site has been dropped by a San Mateo preservationist group that agreed to settle the case with the property owner and the city of San Mateo.

A group trying to prevent the redevelopment of the Bay Meadows race track won a round in court and gained a delay in a hearing of the petition it has brought against the developer and the city of San Mateo.

Hollywood Park plans to race for at least one more year, the California Horse Racing Board was told June 27, while the racing industry in Southern California has "coalesced" around Fairplex Park as the region's eventual replacement for the Inglewood track.

Bay Meadows developers plan to move ahead with its demolition schedule in spite of a pending Oct. 10 court hearing on a lawsuit by a group trying to preserve the track, a senior planner for the city of San Mateo said June 25.

After more than 15 years of uncertainty over its future, Bay Meadows appears headed for its last call. May 11 is the final day of the current spring stand for the oldest continually operating racetrack in California.

Hollywood Park may be celebrating its 70th anniversary season, but the question remains, will the Southern California track be around in 2009 for its 71st? "I just don't know -- nobody knows," said F. Jack Liebau, Hollywood Park president, on opening day, April 23.

A California state senator says he expects to see tribal casinos develop an ownership stake in racetracks, leading to the potential for wagering devices such as Instant Racing or slot machines at racing facilities.

Trying to cure a scheduling headache, the California Horse Racing Board has started planning for the future -- with or without Bay Meadows and Hollywood Park. At an Aug. 10 meeting at Del Mar, the CHRB's dates committee took the first step in piecing together a cohesive three-year calendar.

Faced with eventual closure of Bay Meadows, the California Horse Racing Board doomed the 73-year-old race course rather than grant a two-year waiver of its edict mandating that all major Thoroughbred tracks in the state install synthetic surfaces by the end of the year.

On-track attendance and pari-mutuel handle at Hollywood Park were down during the 61-day spring-summer meeting that ended July 16, although overall wagering increased slightly, according to preliminary figures released by the Southern California track.

A San Mateo County judge's ruling July 17 left a group opposing the redevelopment of Bay Meadows Racecourse all but dead in its attempt to qualify a referendum on the property's future for the November ballot.

A group supporting Bay Meadows Racecourse moved a step closer June 29 to landing a referendum on the November ballot aimed at reversing a San Mateo City Council action allowing redevelopment of the track.

Hollywood Park expects to be the first California racetrack to run on a synthetic-racing surface. The Inglewood facility announced June 21 that it will begin work with Equestrian Surfaces of the United Kingdom to replace the existing main track at the conclusion of the spring/summer meet on July 16.

Bay Meadows Race Course supporters said Thursday they'll likely challenge the San Mateo County Registrar of Voters in court after the referendum drive to save the aging track was deemed 136 signatures shy of the number needed to qualify for the June 2006 ballot.

F. Jack Liebau has been named president of the Hollywood Park Racing Association, replacing Rick Baedeker, who has joined Stockbridge Capital Group, the company that now oversees the Inglewood, Calif., track.

Churchill Downs Incorporated and Bay Meadows Land Company announced completion of the sale of Hollywood Park racetrack and surrounding acreage at the Inglewood, Calif., site Sept. 23 for $257.5 million.

Churchill Downs Inc. and Bay Meadows Land Company completed the sale of Hollywood Park racetrack and surrounding acreage at the Inglewood, Calif., site to Hollywood Park Land Company, an affiliate of BMLC, for $257.5 million. CDI will use the proceeds of the sale to pay down debt.

The California Horse Racing Board put an important stamp of approval on the sale of Hollywood Park at its commission meeting Thursday at Del Mar by unanimously okaying the deal with the Bay Meadows' Land Company in accordance with state racing law.

Saying that California "has forsaken racing and its needs," the president of Churchill Downs Inc. announced July 6 that the company has sold historic Hollywood Park to Bay Meadows Land Company for $260 million.

A Magna Entertainment Corp. official, conceding the company's control of Bay Meadows Racetrack will soon end after five years of operation, said the Toronto-based racing giant wasn't given the opportunity to negotiate a lease extension for 2005 with the track's owner.

Signaling changes to come, the Bay Meadows Land Company submitted a separate proposal for the 2005 racing schedule in the northern half of the state to the California Horse Racing Board dates committee Thursday.